Cheryl Praeger

Since 2014, the Women in Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Australian Mathematical Society bestows the Cheryl E. Praeger Travel Awards to female mathematicians. Since 2017 the Australian Mathematics Trust has awarded the Cheryl Praeger Medal to the best performing female contestants in the Australian Mathematics Competition.

Between 2014 and 2018 Praeger was Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science. She was elected as a Member-at-Large of the executive board of the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA) for 2016–18 and accepted an invitation to Chair the AASSA Committee of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). She is a Member of the executive committee of the Inter Academy Partnership - Science, 2017–19. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science of the International Science Council.

Between 2007 and 2014 Praeger was a member of the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union and between 2013 and 2016 a Vice President of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.

Praeger has supervised over 30 graduate students and in 1997 she supervised the Honours research work of Akshay Venkatesh who went on to win a 2018 Fields Medal, commonly regarded as the highest prize in mathematics.

Praeger is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, former president of the Australian Mathematical Society (1992–1994 and first female President of the Society). She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in 1999 and promoted to Companion in 2021.

Praeger has been a member of the Curriculum Development Center of the Commonwealth Schools Commission, the Prime Ministers Science Advisory Council, WISET Advisory Committee to the Federal Minister for Science on participation of women in Science, Engineering, and Technology, UWA Academy of Young Mathematicians Lectures, the Western Australian School Mathematics Enrichment Course Tutor, and Data Analysis Australia Pty Ltd. She has also served on the Australian Federation of University Women (Western Australian Branch) and the Nedlands Primary School Council. Between 1992 and 2019 she was a board member of the Australian Mathematics Trust. From 2001 to 2019 she chaired the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee. She is currently a member of the National Science and Technology Council.

Her career has been largely spent in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Western Australia. She was appointed full Professor in 1983 and was Head of the Department of Mathematics 1992–1994, inaugural Dean of Postgraduate Research Studies 1996–1998, Chair Promotions and Tenure Committee 2000–2004, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Computing and Mathematics 2003–2006, ARC Professorial Fellow 2007. and ARC Federation Fellow in 2009.

In addition to holding a doctorate in mathematics, she also holds an Associate in Music, Australia (AMusA) in piano performance and was a member of the University of Western Australia Collegium Musicum between 1977 and 1985. She has been a member of the Uniting Church in Australia, Nedlands Parish since 1977, functioned as an elder from 1981 to 1987, and as an organist/pianist since 1985. She lists keyboard music among her stronger interests along with sailing, hiking, and cycling.

In August 1975 Praeger married John Henstridge in Brisbane. They have two children, James (1979) and Tim (1982).

After earning her doctorate in 1973, she obtained a research fellowship at ANU. She had her first opportunity at teaching regular classes at the University of Virginia during the semester she worked there. Afterwards, she returned to ANU, where she met her future husband, John Henstridge, who was studying statistics. She was later offered a short-term position at the University of Western Australia, which turned into a long term position, where she currently works today. In 1989 she received the degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Western Australia for her work on permutation groups and algebraic graph theory.

Praeger published her first research paper in1970 while she was still an undergraduate. Since then she has become one of the most highly cited authors in pure mathematics, with (as of December 2022) over 450 publications total. She in known as a collaborator, with over 200 co-authors.

Cheryl Elisabeth Praeger AC FAA (born 7 September 1948, Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian mathematician. Praeger received BSc (1969) and MSc degrees from the University of Queensland (1974), and a doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1973 under direction of Peter M. Neumann. She has published widely and has advised 27 PhD students (as of March 2018). She is currently Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Western Australia. She is best known for her works in group theory, algebraic graph theory and combinatorial designs.